The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

Dinah is the daughter of the Biblical Jacob, his only daughter in a passel of 13 children by 4 different wives. She is briefly mentioned in the Bible, part of a story about a young lady who falls in love with a a nobleman and falls into his bed before they are married, and whose father and brothers did something horrible in retaliation of her lost honor. The story of Dinah starts when she is a young girl, and ends when she is an old woman, and shares what it would have been like for a woman in biblical times, when women were treated like a commodity, traded and negotiated for like livestock, and expected to be fruitful with healthy sons.

Surprisingly, however, this novel is empowering for women. Despite the conditions, these women were strong and worked together with unbelievable loyalty and solidarity. The wives had unbreakable bonds, and the Red Tent, where a woman was expected to pass her monthly courses, became a place where a woman could just be a woman among friends. Plans were made, advice was passed around, compassion was doled out. Possibly the most important lesson of this novel is that the relationships between women are remarkable, beautiful and unbreakable.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started this novel, but I heard it was really good and I have always been interested in biblical mythology and history. I was blown away by the strength of the women, through everything they were subjected to in the course of their lives. The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant,  is a must-read. I promise.

The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan

 

Upon the death of their father, the Goethem sisters are suddenly trying to survive on their mother’s wages as a laundress (or what remains after she spends half of her money on absinthe), and they are forced to go to work. Antoinette gets her sisters Marie and Charlotte into the Paris Opera, where they will train to be dancers, a grueling and demanding task.  Antoinette, herself, finds work in the play, L’Assommoir, and falls in love with a young man who will soon threaten the bonds of the entire family. While dancing, Marie catches the interest of the artist, Edgar Degas, and becomes the model for his famous sculpture, Little Dancer Aged Fourteen…And in the process, inadvertently catches the interest of an older gentleman with less than honorable intentions.

The Painted Girls, by Cathy Marie Buchanan, is about everything a woman had to do to survive in Paris in the late 1800s. Life was not parlors and needlework for ladies of the Parisian working class, and even less glamorous for young ballet dancers than you would ever imagine. This novel is dark at times, heartbreaking time and again, and the reader just wants the girls to finally overcome it all and find peace and protection from the scary world in which they live.  The novel has a satisfying conclusion, but don’t be surprised if you find yourself reaching for the Kleenex box or craving chocolate (or both) while you read this one.

The Surfing Lesson by Elin Hilderbrand

A teaser short story for Elin Hilderbrand’s new novel, Beautiful Day, The Surfing Lesson gives you a taste for the characters in the upcoming novel and lays out the background of Margot, a working mother who is seriously questioning her marriage to handsome Drum, once known as the best surfer on the Nantucket beaches. Margot decides to test her marriage for once and for all by setting up Drum in an intimate situation with his ex-girfriend Hadley. The plan: have Drum teach Hadley’s son how to surf, and see if Drum will be tempted by Hadley’s obvious attraction and flirtation…And to watch from where no one can see her and see if she can bring back the old passion and possessiveness that was once her relationship with Drum.

This is not a full-length novel, but a short story. If you are an Elin Hilderbrand superfan, however, you will definitely want to add it to your collection. Those of you who haven’t read Elin Hilderbrand should know that she writes women’s fiction bordering on chicklit, and the stories take place in Nantucket and often involve romance and challenging  family relationships. The audiobook by Hachette Audio is excellent, so if you like to listen to your stories, put this one on your list. A warning, however, if you like the short story, chances are you will want to read Beautiful Day immediately. So be prepared.

The Woman He Loved Before by Dorothy Koomson

Libby has what every woman wants. She has her career, she has her perfectly wonderful husband Jack, a beautiful home…She is the luckiest woman alive. Until they are in a horrible car accident and everything begins to fall apart around her. She stumbles upon a notebook, the diary of Jack’s late wife, Eve, who died mysteriously a few years back. Libby is starting to question everything in her perfect life, and Eve seems to be everywhere. In the walls, sitting on the furniture, in the wine cellar…Libby must recover from her accident in a home where she feels like a guest, suddenly…And what really happened to Eve? Jack won’t talk about it much, and he still screams Eve’s name in his sleep at night. Can you be with someone who still loves someone else with his whole heart? Is it enough to love him and get respect and consideration in return? Then a nosy police officer keeps poking around the house, harassing the couple. Libby must decide what is happening and what she is going to do…And the climax of this novel will completely blow readers away.

Readers who liked “Gone Girl” will love The Woman He Loved Before, by Dorothy Koomson. This novel will keep readers on the edge of their seats all the way until the end, and the ending is nothing you would EVER expect-take my word for it. The audiobook version of the novel, by Hachette audio, is brilliantly narrated and a terrific choice for your next road trip…If you can handle it.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

A man returns to his childhood home in Sussex, England, and memories from his childhood come flooding back to him, nagging at him, drawing him to the home of a childhood playmate, Lettie, and events that, looking back, don’t seem like anything other than fantasy. What was real, what was the imagination of a lonely little boy? Evil creatures, world domination, murder, the spirit world and much more will lead readers into a whirlwind of action and fantasy.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman,   is in the genre that I lovingly refer to as “Magical Realism”, and it doesn’t come up on my site very often because it is a bit of a dark horse in the world of literature. Magical Realism simply means that the author has taken “real” life people and settings and inserted fantasy and/or magical elements into that world. Neil Gaiman has a number of novels on my top favorites list, and if you haven’t read him, but you like dark fantasy, you don’t want to miss out on his work. Examples of other magical realism novels are:

Neil Gaiman’s “Neverwhere“

John Connolly’s “The Book of Lost Things“

Christopher Moore’s “Practical Demonkeeping“

Ransom Riggs’ “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children“

Doyce Testerman’s “Hidden Things“

Anyone who likes to see an average person suddenly brought into a situation involving evil fantastical beings will probably like this genre and The Ocean at the End of the Lane would be a good place to test out those waters. Check it out if you dare.

All the Summer Girls by Meg Donohue

Three  women grew up together spending summers on the Jersey Shore and went their separate ways upon adulthood. Kate moved to Philadelphia and became a very serious lawyer, Dani moved to San Francisco and is still thinking someday she will write a novel, but in the meantime she can’t seem to hold a job, and Vanessa is a very active stay-at-home mother in New York City. When they decide to come together at the beach for a stay that will bring the secrets of the past out into the open, challenging their friendships and perceptions of their own lives, and forcing them to decide whether they will move forward or hold onto the events of the past, letting it weigh them down.

All the Summer Girls, by Meg Donohue, is a good beach read and a good example of chicklit. There is some sadness and heartbreak, but the ending is satisfying. Meg Donohue also wrote How to Eat a Cupcake, which a was another great chicklit pick.

The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty

 

Cora Carlisle, by all appearances, is a married, church-going mother of two grown boys during the Prohibition. She believes in temperance, she believes in moderation, and she believes that a woman’s skirt should extend below the knees at all times. But Cora has her own secrets, and when she gets the chance to travel to New York with an aspiring dancer, the very beautiful fifteen year old Louise Brooks, the two of them will both walk away from the experience with very changed lives.

Louise is impulsive, shamelessly flirtatious and very self-centered and bold. Cora is virtuous and reserved. The two women make quite the pair, especially when they leave Kansas and step into the bustling streets of New York city.  Louise is desperate to find a way to stay out of Wichita, Kansas forever, and Cora wants to find out where she came from before she arrived in Kansas on an orphan train as a school-aged child. Temptation finds them both, much to Cora’s surprise, and she must make some very serious decisions about her virtues, her values, and her entire future when the trip ends.

The Chaperone, by Laura Moriarty, sneaks up on you, at first you expect a story about two mismatched women staying together in the big city, and you aren’t sure how it could possibly be interesting…Then the depth of the characters, the traumas of their lives, the truths are revealed slowly and by the end of the novel, you can’t stop reading to find out how they will fare before the story ends. Definitely women’s fiction at it’s finest.

A Half Forgotten Song by Katherine Webb

A newly divorced art dealer has been commissioned to write a book about renowned artist Charles Aubrey, and he decides to travel to the town where the artist spent summers with his exotic mistress and two daughters, to see if he can find information that will set his book apart from all others. He finds Mitzy Hatcher, who claims to have been in a relationship with Charles Aubrey one summer before tragedy struck and he went off to fight in the war.

The quaint little fishing village seems to be full of secrets, however, and the locals are less than welcoming towards outsiders, especially outsiders who ask a lot of very personal questions about long-standing residents.

Traveling between the present and the past, lacing together the generations, A Half Forgotten Song, by Katherine Webb, is full of mystery and suspense, and just enough historical fiction to be perfection. If you loved The Unseen, by the same author, or you adore pretty much any of Kate Morton’s novels (The Distant Hours, The Forgotten Garden, The House at Riverton, The Secret Keeper), you will NOT want to miss this author or her works.

The Boleyn King by Laura Anderson

What would have happened if Anne Boleyn’s baby had survived and been a healthy son? How would history have changed, and what would remain the same? What would Great Britain be like today? Would Mary or Elizabeth have ever found the throne?

The Boleyn King, by Laura Anderson, is a novel about a fictional King, William, the son of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. William has good intentions as a ruler, but has a streak of stubbornness not unlike his father. Elizabeth supports and loves her brother and king, and Mary, while resentful still about her mother being cast aside, seems to only be a moderate threat to his reign thanks to her religious ideals. Minuette and Dominic are two childhood friends of the rulers who have been constant companions to them, and find relationships begin to change as the power structure is laid out before them with time.

These siblings are all at marriageable ages, and things are starting to get interesting. Will they marry for politics or will they find love? Will a secret rebellion knock William from the throne? Can a ruler ever truly be a friend to someone else? Philippa Gregory readers will love The Boleyn King, by Laura Anderson, so be sure to check it out for yourself if you love historical fiction and historical romance.

The Longings of Wayward Girls by Karen Brown

Decades ago, terrible things happened in Sadie’s hometown. Two little girls, both at separate times, disappeared, rumored to have wandered into the woods and never returned. These disappearances weighed over the town, ever-present in the parts of the mind where fear resides. The mysteries were never solved. But Sadie may know more about one girl’s disappearance than she lets on.

A mother of two who recently miscarried, Sadie is looking for distraction and struggling with her own demons. Fighting her entire life not to become her mother, she is beginning to find herself walking down that very inescapable path. But she wants more for her children and for herself than the rollercoaster of her own childhood. When a neighborhood boy she once knew comes back to her neighborhood upon his father’s death to clear out the house of its mess, and quite possibly, its secrets, Sadie must face the truth about what happened in her quiet little town all those years ago-with her mother, with the disappearances, with her own dark, hidden secrets.

Will the secrets finally be brought into the open for once and for all? Will Sadie win the battle and gain control over her life? Will she take responsibility for what she did all those years ago?

The Longings of Wayward Girls, by Karen Brown, has melancholy moments, but it is an interesting mystery and emotional journey for anyone who enjoys that sort of literature.